La Paz, Baja California Sur (OEM-Informex) .- The delegate of the National Institute of Anthropology and History Humberto Carrillo reported that he is waiting for the communities of southern San Francisco de la Sierra to send him the request to reopen the area archaeological site where the cave paintings are found to authorize the reactivation of this activity, and confirmed that the northern part of that region has already requested it.
He recalled that since last January the entry of tourists to these sites was approved, however at the request of the local population it was determined to leave it without effect, attending to the legitimate concern of Covid-19 infections in that mountainous area of the municipality of Mulegé , where most of the population are older adults.
Likewise, he reported that once the semaphore of the Covid-19 pandemic dropped to level 3 throughout the state, the museums have been reopened, with a very low visitor record in La Paz and very copious in Loreto, in this last site with the highest presence of foreigners.
Humberto Carrillo toHe clarified that both in the next reopening of the cave paintings and the museums, sanitary measures such as healthy distance, the mandatory use of face masks, temperature measurement must be applied.
In the case of the Sierra de San Francisco, supplies will be provided to the custodians of the archaeological sites and talks to the ranchers to carry out this sanitary protocol.
So far there are no reports of damage to archaeological sites that were closed for several months.
The official recognized the importance that the cave paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco have for the population of that region, especially for the rancherías of San Francisco, San Gregorio, La Soledad, Guadalupe, Santa Teresa, San Antonio, San Julio and Las Golondrinas , all in conditions of marginality and poverty, aggravated by the drought and the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to official data, approximately 6 thousand visitors a year come to this archaeological zone; almost half to El Palmarito and the rest to the Ratón cave; in the first case, on a trip of three days on the back of a mule and in the second on one side of the gap that connects that area with the Vizcaíno Valley.
To get to the site you have to travel from La Paz to the north for approximately 8 hours, or fly to Loreto or Guerrero Negro to shorten the road.
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Much of the Sierra de San Francisco is within the Protected Natural Area of the Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, it is a site protected by the INAH and in 1993 declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
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